Heavy rains have claimed 16 lives in coastal Andhra Pradesh since the last two days and have caused widespread damage to standing crops, an official said on Wednesday. South coastal Andhra districts received heavy rains as a depression in the Bay of Bengal crossed the coast near Bapatla on Wednesday morning.According to an officials of the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), the depression was centred 50 km northwest of Bapatla and...

Pawan Goenka noticed something unusual last year—tractor sales were climbing even though India had its worst monsoon in more than three decades and farm output dropped 2.8% in the three months to December last fiscal. The umbilical cord that tied rainfall patterns and tractor sales seemed to have been ruptured. The president of auto and tractor maker Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd offers an interesting explanation to this puzzle: growing labour shortages...

he recent findings by the Labour Bureau's Employment and Unemployment Survey (2009-10) provide timely pointers to the manner in which liberalising India's workforce is coping with the changing times. The survey gives a snapshot of the country's employment and demographic situation. The estimated unemployment rate — in the region of 9.4 per cent (barring the five north-eastern States and the islands of Lakshadweep and Andaman and Nicobar, where the survey...

This is the first time that the Planning Commission has sought engagement of the civil society NGOs have given suggestions for previous Five Year PlansConsultations on various topics plannedThe Planning Commission is involving leading non-governmental organisations and civic society, seeking their inputs, suggestions and experiences, for preparing its approach paper for the 12 {+t} {+h} Five Year Plan (2012-17), which will be the base document for the Plan itself.Though NGOs had...

Global temperatures from November 2010 are similar to those observed in November 2005 The year 2010 is almost certain to rank in the top three warmest years since the beginning of instrumental climate records in 1850, according to data compiled by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) that were released here on Thursday. A WMO statement said the global combined sea surface and land surface air temperature for 2010 (January–October) is now estimated...